Zimbabwe’s The NewsHawks freezes military story over fears for journalists’ safety

Zimbabwean authorities must end the intimidation and surveillance of journalists working for The NewsHawks online newspaper and ensure they can report safely about the military, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday. The NewsHawks, a privately owned investigative online newspaper, announced on Tuesday that it had halted further reporting on its February 12 story that three army generals were dismissed following allegations of corruption, citing fears for the safety of its journalists, according to news reports and The NewsHawks’ managing editor Dumisani Muleya, who spoke with CPJ. The NewsHawks said in a statement that reporters had been removed from…Read more

CPJ urges Nigerian authorities to investigate attacks on journalists following court judgment

  • Posted on March 12, 2024
  • /Under Assault
Nigerian authorities must comply with a federal high court judgment ordering the government to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for attacking journalists in Nigeria, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.  In 2021 Nigerian local press freedom group Media Rights Agenda (MRA) filed a lawsuit requesting the court to compel the federal government to investigate and prosecute attacks on the press. On February 16, the court ruled in favor of MRA, calling “the failure of the federal government of Nigeria to take effective legal and other measures to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of attacks…Read more

Indian journalist Santu Pan arrested, 3 others assaulted in West Bengal violence

Indian authorities must drop the charges against journalist Santu Pan, who was arrested live on air while reporting on allegations of abuse by West Bengal officials, and investigate the earlier assault of three journalists reporting on clashes related to one of those officials, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday. On Monday, police arrested Pan, who works for the privately owned news broadcaster Republic Bangla, while he was reporting from a woman’s home in the village of Sandeshkhali, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of West Bengal’s state capital, Kolkata, and remanded…Read more

Cameroonian journalist Bruno Bidjang detained for alleged ‘rebellion’

Cameroonian authorities must immediately release journalist Bruno François Bidjang, drop legal proceedings against him for alleged rebellion, and allow journalists to comment freely on public affairs, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday. On February 6, gendarmes from the Yaoundé State Secretariat for Defense (SED) summoned Bidjang, managing director of the privately-owned L’Anecdote media group and news program presenter on Vision 4 television, to secretariat headquarters for questioning.  He was then detained on allegations of “rebellion” in connection with a video posted and later removed on TikTok, according to his lawyer Charles Tchoungang and…Read more

4 Nigerian journalists charged with cybercrime, defamation over fraud investigation

Authorities in Nigeria should immediately drop all charges against journalists Adisa-Jaji Azeez, Salihu Ayatullahi, Salihu Shola Taofeek, and Abdulrahman Taye Damilola, and allow them to work without fear of arrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday.  On Tuesday, police officers arrested Azeez, managing director, and Ayatullahi, editor-in-chief, of the privately owned The Informant247 news website, over reports published on November 10  and February 1 about corruption at Kwara State Polytechnic, Ayatullahi and Taofeek, the outlet’s publisher, told CPJ by phone.  Azeez and Ayatullahi were arrested after responding to a request from the police headquarters in Ilorin, capital of western Nigeria’s Kwara…Read more

Rwandan journalist Dieudonné Niyonsenga says he was beaten, detained in ‘hole’

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed alarm at reports that Dieudonné Niyonsenga had been tortured in a Rwandan prison and called on authorities to unconditionally release the journalist, who is serving a seven-year sentence.  During a January 10, 2024, hearing at the court of appeal in the capital Kigali, Niyonsenga said that he was held under “inhumane” conditions in a “hole” and was frequently beaten, according to media reports and court documents reviewed by CPJ. Niyonsenga, who also goes by Cyuma Hassan, appeared in court with a head wound and said that his hearing and vision were impaired by the conditions of his detention,…Read more

CPJ calls for probe into attack on Ghana radio journalist David Kobbena at ruling NPP office

  • Posted on February 5, 2024
  • /Under Assault
Authorities in Ghana should credibly investigate an attack on Cape FM reporter David Kobbena at the offices of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. About 15 people, several of whom were wearing pro-NPP T-shirts, confronted and assaulted Kobbena while he was covering an event at the party’s offices on January 4, 2024, in the central Cape Coast region, according to news reports and Kobbena, who spoke to CPJ by phone. Kobbena told CPJ that he reported the incident to police that…Read more

Pakistani TV journalist Shoaib Burni injured in gun attack in Karachi

  • Posted on January 23, 2024
  • /Under Assault
Pakistan authorities must immediately investigate the attack against Suno News journalist Shoaib Burni, and hold the perpetrators accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On January 14, an unknown number of unidentified gunmen on a motorbike shot Burni, who is the TV station’s bureau chief in Karachi, in the left arm as he was driving his car in the Lucky One area of Pakistan’s biggest city, according to Suno News and Naimat Khan, General Secretary of the Karachi Union of Journalists. Khan told CPJ that the attack appeared to be targeted, although the motive…Read more

South African journalist Thomo Nkgadima charged with intimidation after photographing mayor’s home

South African authorities should drop criminal trespass and intimidation charges against freelance journalist Thomo Nkgadima and ensure that members of the press do not face reprisal for reporting issues of public interest, the Committee to Protect Journalists have said. On December 24, 2023, police in Fetakgomo Tubatse Municipality in South Africa’s northern Limpopo Province summoned and arrested Nkgadima, who contributes to the privately owned newspaper Sunday World, in response to a complaint of trespass and intimidation by the municipality’s mayor, Eddie Maila, the journalist and Sunday World digital editor Tumo Mokone told CPJ. In a statement to…Read more

Bangladeshi journalist Md Nahid Hasan attacked while reporting on political clash

  • Posted on November 28, 2023
  • /Under Assault
Bangladesh authorities must immediately and impartially investigate the recent attack on journalist Md Nahid Hasan while reporting on a clash allegedly involving the student wing of the ruling Awami League and hold the perpetrators accountable, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On Monday evening, about 20 to 25 men attacked Hasan, a reporter for the news website Jagonews24.com, in the capital Dhaka, according to the local press freedom group Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, news reports, and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ. “The beating of Bangladeshi journalist Md Nahid Hasan appears to be the…Read more